Kevin Murphy to use 100% recycled ocean plastics

Posted on Oct 1, 2018

At pHd we think a lot about the environment. Which is why it’s so important to us that the companies we work with do too.

We chose Kevin Murphy and John Masters as our partners. They offer top quality organic products fit for the catwalk without the chemicals found in mainstream salon brands. We get the expert results our clients expect without the worry of what they’re absorbing through their skin or we’re flushing down the drains.

So we were delighted to hear that Kevin Murphy have taken their fight against plastic to another level.

Recycling Ocean Plastics

The company already use ingenious packaging design to reduce plastic use by 40%. This week they announced that, from 2019, all their plastic packaging will come from ocean waste.

Working with Danish company, Pack-Tech, Kevin Murphy will be gathering ocean plastics. The plastic will be cleaned, shredded and reclaimed into re-usable material for product packaging.

Beaches of ocean plastics

Kevin Murphy himself was inspired by a conversation with friends who had recently visited Bali. Every morning, they said, the beaches would be beautiful and clean. But by the afternoon a wave of plastic would have washed in. The locals did their best to keep on top of the waste, but were losing the never ending battle.

Sadly this is by no means limited to the beaches of Bali. 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year and experts estimate that over 5 trillion pieces of plastic are floating in the seas. If we continue to litter at this rate then by 2050 there will be more pieces of plastic than fish in the planet’s seas.

The hair and beauty industry is responsible for a large portion of the plastic that finds it’s way into the oceans. Although Kevin Murphy already work hard to keep their contribution to this problem to a minimum, they feel it is their duty to do more.

Taking the plunge, 100%

Increasingly, companies around the world are taking this issue seriously, and using recycled ocean plastics in their products. However, Kevin Murphy is the first organisation to fully commit to being 100% recycled.

“Most other companies incorporate ocean plastic as a fraction of what they use, but we wanted to make a 100% switch,” Kevin Murphy says.

Environmental care doesn’t come cheap though. Kevin Murphy was initially disheartened when presented with the high cost of achieving their goal. It seemed insurmountable at first. But they believe that they can absorb the bulk of the cost and customers will be prepared to pay a little more in exchange for a cleaner future.

“We have swallowed a lot of the cost ourselves to make this happen,” Kevin Murphy says, “but we feel the issue is so important to the future of the planet that we need to make that sacrifice.”

Looking to a cleaner future

pHd are so proud and excited to be involved with such an innovative, forward thinking company. One that shares our deep concern for our planet. We look forward to seeing the new bottles in our salon next year.

For more information this is an excellent video of Kevin Murphy’s plans.